Sonic Fabric: Half Cotton – Half Cassette Tape

The folks over at Sonic Fabric have created a weaving process that combines recycled cassette tapes with cotton.  Amazingly, the fabric still creates sound if you run a tape head over it because the magnetic quality is maintained.  Of course, having a huge band of tape doesn’t produce anything recognizable, but you can easily produce some unique noises with your clothing.

Jon Fishman, the drummer for Phish, wore a custom-made suit from Sonic Fabric and even played it onstage in 2004.  Today, the store boasts a selection of neckties, flags and by the yard.  Alyce Santoro, the creator of the fabric, will even create an outfit with a custom selection of tapes for a price.  She discusses her inspiration on the Sonic Fabric site,

I grew up racing small sailboats, and on sailboats you need indicators to tell the wind direction. These “tell-tails” can be made from feathers or small pieces of string or yarn. On my father’s boat (a 19′ Lightning class sailboat) his tell-tail of choice was made from a small strand of cassette tape because it’s a light, wind-sensitive, and durable material. When I was a kid I used to imagine that I could hear Cat Stevens or Beethoven’s 6th or whatever had been recorded onto the tape wafting out into the air if the wind hit the tell-tail just the right way.  Years later, I learned about Tibetan Buddhist prayer flags. Colorful squares of fabric silkscreened with mantras are hung outdoors in auspicious locations where their blessings can be activated and sent off into the world on the wind. It seemed a natural progression to me to combine these two concepts to create a fabric with sounds I considered sacred woven into it.

[via Crafting a Green World]